Wednesday, September 30, 2009

His name might be similar, but this Metro employee is no Superman.On Saturday night at about 8:45 p.m., we began a trip at East Falls Church station. We were with a friend from out of town who needed to buy a farecard. After trying several machines using cash, it appeared none of them were working. Other customers were having the same difficulty.There were no signs about any problems so everyone was going from machine to machine.We went to the station manager and politely said "None of the machines seem to be working correctly, and the last one (an older model) doesn't even appear to be on."Mr. Khalil (Superman's "real" name is Kal-El), who was engrossed in something else, sighed and said, "they all work" and looked back down at whatever he was reading.Flabbergasted, we pointed to the growing crowd and said, "No, they don't.""They're all working," said Khalil rather lethargically, giving off a strong get-the-hell-out-of-my-face vibe.Stunned by Khalil's attitude, we walked back to the ticket machines to see if our friend had struck it lucky on another machine.They had not, but others had figured out that the machines were only accepting credit or debit cards.A sign would have been nice.So we went back to Khalil and suggested some signage was in order.Acting like he'd just awoken from a nap, he stuck with his "they're all fine" line.It was obvious that getting him to move was going to be more difficult than reversing the spin of the planet, but at last, he relented and slowly emerged from his kiosk of solitude, again exhaling as if he were really being put out.Donning his fluorescent orange and green WMATA cape, he first walked very slowly over to the machine that appeared to be off.Khalil gave it a few short punches like people used to do with a TV on the blink, and voila, the machine came to life!"You just don't have as much experience as I do," he said with a smug grin as he sauntered back to his hideout.Here's one Metro employee who should probably be taken up, up and away from front line customer "service," because customers seem to have much the same effect kryptonite has on Superman.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

From reader Steph:Saw this winner on the Orange Line to Vienna the other day. It as about 2 p.m. on a pretty crowded train. Someone sat next to me shortly after I took the picture, and people were standing. Lucky for him, he got to lounge comfortably for the ride. He was DEFINITELY awake: awake and reading and thus "aware" of the crowds!

Monday, September 28, 2009

The Washington Post is reporting that moving the 1000-series cars to the middle of trains was nothing but a PR move. According to a poll we ran a while back, most of you already knew Metro was full of it. Here are the results:

Putting the 1000-series cars in the middle of trains...Makes us safer 10%Is nothing but a PR stunt 67%I don't know 22%Votes: 504

Perhaps, without realizing it, Metro did come clean on the issue of the non-working intercoms, about which we've reported previously on this blog. In the Metro press release "refuting" many points in the Post article about the 1000-series cars is the admission by Metro that by mixing trains with various car types "sometimes the intercoms used by customers to communicate with the train operators also do not always function, and officials are seeking to identify a fix to that situation."

But Metro told us that "checking intercoms is part of the daily train inspection. If one is found to be inoperative, the cars are not released until the intercom is fixed."

The Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689, which represents 10,000 current and retired Metro rail, bus, maintenance and clerical workers, publishes sporadic newsletters, which are posted for all to see on the union's Web site.

In addition to the standard "message from the president" and event information, the newsletters also feature a section called "Grievance Updates" in which there is a list on the latest wins (W) and losses (L) the union has had with employees who've found themselves in hot WMATA.

If you count up the Ws versus the Ls, you've got a Super Bowl team in the making! Carla Proctor may be back behind the wheel before you know it!

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